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Know Your Driver

On April 20th, 2012, I took a vacation to San Diego with my two friends
from college to attend a music festival in the desert. I decided to
contact an old friend of mine who I hadn't seen in 10 years but had
kept in touch with on Facebook. Since she lived close to the music
festival that I had bought tickets for, I thought that it would be fun
to meet up again and introduce everyone. I excitedly made the plans.

After arriving in San Diego, we all became close and opened up to each
other as new roommates would in an unfamiliar place. It seemed as if my
old friend and I picked up exactly where we left off 10 years ago. Our
personalities and quirks pretty much stayed the same. She was
accommodating and friendly to my college friends, like she was to me
when I met her. She showed us around, introduced us to people, and even
took us to remote parts of the beach. Though I knew our stay would be
short-lived, I liked living the life of a local for at least a little
while.

The four of us managed to split all of the utilities needed for the trip
evenly and fairly and were ready to head to the 3-day festival. By the
time we were done packing the car, there was barely any room for 2
people in the back. I wanted my friends to be comfortable, so I
volunteered to sit in the only space that was left behind the driver. I
wasn't able to put a seat belt on because my body was only half onto the
seat. The rest of me was squished between the door as my arm hung over my
head, cradling the window from above. I wondered how I would be able to
sit like that for a 3-hour drive, but we laughed about it anyway.

A few minutes after leaving her house, my old friend went to make a
left-hand turn onto a highway. Before she even began to pull out, I felt
uneasy. It was a blind spot. For some reason, though, I didn't say
anything. Another part of me was telling me to trust her judgment. When
she finally pulled into the highway, she stepped on the brakes. We were
suddenly stopped, sitting in the road perpendicular to the way of
traffic for only a second or two before I saw a sport-utility vehicle (SUV) coming toward me. I
turned my head the other way, hoping that we would move, or the SUV would
stop. But before I had time to process the reality of the situation, the SUV T-boned us. It hit right
into the left side of my body. The airbags deployed, one of them
blocking the window from shattering into my face.

I limped out of the
car and sat on the sidewalk as I waited for help. I felt that my tooth
had chipped and saw the glass in my arm. I could barely walk. The car was totaled, and it's safe to say that this
second-long incident ruined the rest of the trip. I didn't sustain any major injuries, but had to go to a hospital. I lived in physical pain for months, and even found myself daydreaming months later about what would have happened if the SUV was going faster, or what would have happened if we weren't in a brand new car with side airbags.

In the United States, there are over 30,000 fatal accidents per year, and they can happen within an instant. That is 780 deaths
per week, or one death every 13 minutes.

Before the accident, I always found myself over-worrying or
being overly careful. My friends used to make fun of me and complain about my safe and non-aggressive driving. But maybe when it comes to driving, it's better to
be that way. What we perhaps don't realize or sometimes forget is that
it's okay to be a little scared in order to stay alert and thoughtful
on the road. A mistake as careless as ours was in California could cost us our
lives.

Another thing is that it's crucial to know who we are getting into the
car with, and I feel foolish for only realizing this after the fact.
Though I blame my personal situation on myself, too, if a driver plans
on taking a road trip without insisting that his or her passengers are
safely seated or that they themselves will drive cautiously, they aren't
being responsible. It's worth it to think once in a while about the fact that every time we get into a car with a driver or we
drive someone else, we really do end up exchanging the deepest trust
possible. We are literally putting our lives into someone else's control, and vice versa.

Days after my accident, both of my friend's parents told me, on
separate
occasions, that their daughter (the driver) lives
with severe anxiety and panic issues. This is part of the reason why
they had moved to California in the first place. I also knew this about my friend, but felt like it wouldn't be an issue or affect me in any way. I didn't connect the
two at first, but later wondered if mental state can have this much of
an affect on driving. Because accidents happen so easily, I feel like any altered mental state or distraction of one person (like texting while driving) could potentially cause a fatality of many.

Stacy Gever has a degree in mass communications (tele-communications) and a minor in creative writing. She started her career at MedPage Today in April of 2012 and assists in various production tasks, proofreading, and social media. While a student at Bloomsburg University, she was a member of The National Broadcast Society and has experience in scriptwriting, film, radio, and television. She is based in the New York City office.

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